International Law and Governance of Natural Resources in Conflict and Post-Conflict Situations

Description

Natural resource wealth is conducive to a country's development. Nevertheless, the last few decades have shown a harsher reality, where natural resources have also triggered, financed or fuelled a number of internal armed conflicts. Examples include the armed conflicts in Cambodia, Sierra Leone, Liberia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, which have been financed with the exploitation of a variety of valuable natural resources, including diamonds, gold, timber, oil and cocoa. The aim of this book is to assess the contribution of international law in ensuring that natural resources are used to promote development and to achieve sustainable peace instead of financing armed conflict. For this purpose, the author discusses the international legal framework for the governance of natural resources in States in general, in situations of armed conflict and as part of conflict resolution and post-conflict peacebuilding efforts.

Daniella Dam-de Jong is an assistant professor at the Department of Public International Law and the Grotius Centre for International Legal Studies at Universiteit Leiden, The Netherlands. Her research interests include international humanitarian law, international human rights law, international environmental law and the law on the use of force.

'The purpose of Dam-de Jong's volume goes beyond early efforts to develop a more coherent regulatory framework for the exploitation of natural resources in armed conflict. ... In this regard, the book is topical, original, and it fills a gap in the literature. ... [Dam-de Jong's] balanced conclusion is the result of a comprehensive, rigorous inquiry that highlights the strengths of the existing international legal framework and practice, as well as its inconsistencies and limitations.' Eliana Cusato, Asian Journal of International Law